Lincoln's Yarns and Stories Part 40

"Lincoln had given permits and pa.s.ses through the lines to two persons--Mr. Joseph Mattox of Maryland and General Singleton of Illinois--to enable them to bring cotton and other Southern products from Virginia. Washburne heard of it, called immediately on Mr. Lincoln, and, after remonstrating with him on the impropriety of such a demarche, threatened to have General Grant countermand the permits if they were not revoked.

"Naturally, both became excited. Lincoln declared that he did not believe General Grant would take upon himself the responsibility of such an act. 'I will show you, sir; I will show you whether Grant will do it or not,' responded Mr. Washburne, as he abruptly withdrew.

"By the next boat, subsequent to this interview, the Congressman left Was.h.i.+ngton for the headquarters of General Grant. He returned shortly afterward to the city, and so likewise did Mattox and Singleton. Grant had countermanded the permits.

"Under all the circ.u.mstances, it was, naturally, a source of exultation to Mr. Washburne and his friends, and of corresponding surprise and mortification to the President. The latter, however, said nothing further than this:

"'I wonder when General Grant changed his mind on this subject? He was the first man, after the commencement of this War, to grant a permit for the pa.s.sage of cotton through the lines, and that to his own father.'

"The President, however, never showed any resentment toward General Grant.

"In referring afterwards to the subject, the President said: 'It made me feel my insignificance keenly at the moment; but if my friends Washburne, Henry Wilson and others derive pleasure from so unworthy a victory over me, I leave them to its full enjoyment.'

"This ripple on the otherwise unruffled current of their intercourse did not disturb the personal relations between Lincoln and Grant; but there was little cordiality between the President and Messrs. Washburne and Wilson afterwards."

WON JAMES GORDON BENNETT'S SUPPORT.

The story as to how President Lincoln won the support of James Gordon Bennett, Sr., founder of the New York Herald, is a most interesting one.

It was one of Lincoln's shrewdest political acts, and was brought about by the tender, in an autograph letter, of the French Mission to Bennett.

The New York Times was the only paper in the metropolis which supported him heartily, and President Lincoln knew how important it was to have the support of the Herald. He therefore, according to the way Colonel McClure tells it, carefully studied how to bring its editor into close touch with himself.

The outlook for Lincoln's re-election was not promising. Bennett had strongly advocated the nomination of General McClellan by the Democrats, and that was ominous of hostility to Lincoln; and when McClellan was nominated he was accepted on all sides as a most formidable candidate.

It was in this emergency that Lincoln's political sagacity served him sufficiently to win the Herald to his cause, and it was done by the confidential tender of the French Mission. Bennett did not break over to Lincoln at once, but he went by gradual approaches.

His first step was to declare in favor of an entirely new candidate, which was an utter impossibility. He opened a "leader" in the Herald on the subject in this way: "Lincoln has proved a failure; McClellan has proved a failure; Fremont has proved a failure; let us have a new candidate."

Lincoln, McClellan and Fremont were then all in the field as nominated candidates, and the Fremont defection was a serious threat to Lincoln.

Of course, neither Lincoln nor McClellan declined, and the Herald, failing to get the new man it knew to be an impossibility, squarely advocated Lincoln's re-election.

Without consulting any one, and without any public announcement: whatever, Lincoln wrote to Bennett, asking him to accept the mission to France. The offer was declined. Bennett valued the offer very much more than the office, and from that day until the day of the President's death he was one of Lincoln's most appreciative friends and hearty supporters on his own independent line.

STOOD BY THE "SILENT MAN."

Once, in reply to a delegation, which visited the White House, the members of which were unusually vociferous in their demands that the Silent Man (as General Grant was called) should be relieved from duty, the President remarked:

"What I want and what the people want is generals who will fight battles and win victories.

"Grant has done this, and I propose to stand by him."

This declaration found its way into the newspapers, and Lincoln was upheld by the people of the North, who, also, wanted "generals who will fight battles and win victories."

A VERY BRAINY NUBBIN.

President Lincoln and Secretary of State Seward met Alexander H.

Stephens, Vice-President of the Confederacy, on February 2nd, 1865, on the River Queen, at Fortress Monroe. Stephens was enveloped in overcoats and shawls, and had the appearance of a fair-sized man. He began to take off one wrapping after another, until the small, shriveled old man stood before them.

Lincoln quietly said to Seward: "This is the largest shucking for so small a nubbin that I ever saw."

President Lincoln had a friendly conference, but presented his ultimatum that the one and only condition of peace was that Confederates "must cease their resistance."

SENT TO HIS "FRIENDS."

During the Civil War, Clement L. Vallandigham, of Ohio, had shown himself, in the National House of Representatives and elsewhere, one of the bitterest and most outspoken of all the men of that cla.s.s which insisted that "the war was a failure." He declared that it was the design of "those in power to establish a despotism," and that they had "no intention of restoring the Union." He denounced the conscription which had been ordered, and declared that men who submitted to be drafted into the army were "unworthy to be called free men." He spoke of the President as "King Lincoln."

Such utterances at this time, when the Government was exerting itself to the utmost to recruit the armies, were dangerous, and Vallandigham was arrested, tried by court-martial at Cincinnati, and sentenced to be placed in confinement during the war.

General Burnside, in command at Cincinnati, approved the sentence, and ordered that he be sent to Fort Warren, in Boston Harbor; but the President ordered that he be sent "beyond our lines into those of his friends." He was therefore escorted to the Confederate lines in Tennessee, thence going to Richmond. He did not meet with a very cordial reception there, and finally sought refuge in Canada.

Vallandigham died in a most peculiar way some years after the close of the War, and it was thought by many that his death was the result of premeditation upon his part.

GO DOWN WITH COLORS FLYING.

In August, 1864, the President called for five hundred thousand more men. The country was much depressed. The Confederates had, in comparatively small force, only a short time before, been to the very gates of Was.h.i.+ngton, and returned almost unharmed.

The Presidential election was impending. Many thought another call for men at such a time would insure, if not destroy, Mr. Lincoln's chances for re-election. A friend said as much to him one day, after the President had told him of his purpose to make such a call.

"As to my re-election," replied Mr. Lincoln, "it matters not. We must have the men. If I go down, I intend to go, like the c.u.mberland, with my colors flying!"

ALL WERE TRAGEDIES.

The cartoon reproduced below was published in "Harper's Weekly" on January 31st, 1863, the explanatory text, underneath, reading in this way:

MANAGER LINCOLN: "Ladies and gentlemen, I regret to say that the tragedy ent.i.tled 'The Army of the Potomac' has been withdrawn on account of quarrels among the leading performers, and I have subst.i.tuted three new and striking farces, or burlesques, one, ent.i.tled 'The Repulse of Vicksburg,' by the well-known favorite, E. M. Stanton, Esq., and the others, 'The Loss of the Harriet Lane,' and 'The Exploits of the Alabama'--a very sweet thing in farces, I a.s.sure you--by the veteran composer, Gideon Welles. (Unbounded applause by the Copperheads)."

In July, after this cartoon appeared, the Army of the Potomac defeated Lee at Gettysburg, and sounded the death-knell of the Confederacy; General Hooker, with his corps from this Army opened the Tennessee River, thus affording some relief to the Union troops in Chattanooga; Hooker's men also captured Lookout Mountain, and a.s.sisted in taking Missionary Ridge.

General Grant converted the farce "The Repulse of Vicksburg" into a tragedy for the Copperheads, taking that stronghold on July 4th, and Captain Winslow, with the Union man-of-war Kearsarge, meeting the Confederate privateer Alabama, off the coast of France, near Cherbourg, fought the famous s.h.i.+p to a finish and sunk her. Thus the tragedy of "The Army of the Potomac" was given after all, and Playwright Stanton and Composer Welles were vindicated, their compositions having been received by the public with great favor.